March 20, 2011
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Vanderbilt Head Coach Melanie Balcomb
Opening Statement:
“I think we lost the game in the first half and I don’t say that very often, but the confidence we allowed them to get on offense really hurt us, they did a great job spreading us out and shooting the three. There go to read we couldn’t guard inside. We had a really tough time and they built that confidence in the first half. I liked our fight back we made many runs back but every time we did they had an answer and they came right back because they had that confidence that we allowed them to have early on.”
On Louisville’s shooting success:
“Better defense, We tried everything and we let shooters shoot they got hot and when shooters are confident and get their rhythm, and you don’t take that away from them early, they are going get in a zone and it probably didn’t matter what we did, if they got open they were going to knock it down.”
On Mo Reid:
“You obviously I saw her on tape but I hadn’t seen her since I tried to recruit her in AAU, I think she’s improved a lot in her physicality and her ability to get her shoulders past the defense. She’s really smart, she has a counter to what the defense does, she stays really low and uses her body really well and very aggressive with the basketball and she can also hit the face-up, so it makes it very difficult to guard.”
On rebounding:
“We noticed that its one of our focuses, I called it the X factor in the game; I thought we could do a better job on offensive rebounding and we only had 7. If we could stop them from offensive rebounding and us get more offensive rebounds but we’ve been struggling that hasn’t been our strength, in our last 5 games we have given offensive rebounds to the other team. It wasn’t our strength yet we tried to emphasize it going into the game and hoped it would be something we could capitalize on.”
On young players for next season:
“You know when we made our runs we had three freshman on the floor and two sophomores most of the time and Jasmine Lister and Christina Foggie started off the season starting for us and Jasmine has been starting and has been really consistent and probably been our most consistent player and has brought a lot. Foggie has had two concussions and concussion syndrome and been out of the lineup all year, her first game she had 27 points for us but it’s been a struggle getting back to that and you saw a little bit of that in the second half. I like that and having a 6’5” post player inside who had a stress fracture in her back and was in and out all season as well so I think if we can in the offseason work on their strength and conditioning and keep them healthy I think we have a lot of bright things to look forward to in that freshman class and our younger players for next season.”
Hannah Tuomi
Louisville’s Confidence:
“Yeah I mean they were aggressive from the start and definitely in the first half we let them dictate us and then we came out and fought back but they continued to push the ball and score on us and we didn’t have enough fight to overcome that.”
On her last game in career:
“Definitely not how I wanted it to end but it’s a team sport and they were the better team today and that’s all I can say. I just hope the best next year for my team and the coaches and the program.”
Gabby Smith
On coming back and letting lead grow:
“I think it was our confidence and we picked it up and matched theirs and we were able to make a run and cut it to 7. As soon as they starting making shots they got confidence and we backed down again and they got more confident than we did.
Louisville Head Coach Jeff Walz
Opening Statement:
“First just really, really excited about the way our kids played today. Just thrilled with the amount of fans that we had today that came up to support us. It’s been a fantastic year for us with the attendance that we have had at all of our home games and to have as many as we did today show up really shows we have some true diehard fans. It really meant a lot to us. I know our players really fed off them a lot.”
On if this is the most complete game they have played:
“I would say so except for the fact that we turned the ball over twenty times. I mean that is the one stat that really jumps out at me. We turned it over six times in the first half and fourteen in the second half. That is really when they made their run to cut it to a five or six point game. We just continued to turn the ball over and make bad decisions with the ball. We rebounded the ball well today and kept them off of the offensive glass. We shot our free throws well. I thought we took good three point shots. We didn’t really force up any. We distributed the ball well to have twenty assists on thirty made field goals is really something to be excited about.”
On what sparked the team in the first half:
“It is do or die. I expressed to our players that it is survive and advance now. There is no tomorrow if we don’t win. So I thought defensively we did a really good job. Our defense led to a lot of offense in the first half. I thought just the way we defended and then the way we shared the basketball in the first half was a big help for us.”
On the 13-0 run:
“We just called a set play. They cut it to five and we came down the floor and ran a set play and executed it perfect. Keshia Hines made a lay-up in the post and she scored. Then I don’t even think I called a timeout. I was just going to make our kids figure it out. I get a little stubborn at times with that. They came down the floor, I think they missed, the ball may have kicked out of bounds. It was a dead ball then a media timeout. Then we executed in the half court. That is what we did over the next four minute stretch to get it back to an eighteen point lead is we executed in the half court. I was really, really proud that we continued to fight and didn’t let a few minutes of bad play spiral into ten minutes of bad play. I think we really matured as a team. Now we have to watch some film here and get ready for our next game.”
On Charmaine’s game and her impact despite the fact she did not score:
“Charmaine played extremely well for us. I was really pleased. I was really excited for her. She had five assists and one turnover, comes up with two steals, a block. Just really did a nice job defensively for us. Was very active, handled the ball against the press a lot. We are going to continue to need her to factor for us. Asia Taylor will continue to play for us and we need some scoring from Asia. We have four kids who shot the ball extremely well. We go 10-15, 5-6, 8-13, and 7-9. There is no reason, as I tell our players, we are not really a democracy when it comes to this team. We do what I say. We throw it to the ones that are making shots. That is what we do. It seemed to work extremely well for us today.”
On the spark Tia gave in the first half:
“She can make shots. What I give to Tia is she normally does not take bad shots and she took open shots and knocked down open shots. I thought we as a team did a good job of executing in the half court. I have told our kids if you want to win in the NCAA Tournament if have got to execute in the half court and we did that. She hit back-to-back threes off a set play and did a really good job of setting her defender up on the second one to get that. I really didn’t say much. There were a few timeouts I said a few things but I don’t think we can repeat those.”
. On the chance to play Xavier again:
“We are just excited to be playing.”
On rebounding margin:
“No it is normally the opposite way around. We played with a purpose and we rebounded the ball with a purpose. We played on a mission. We played hard. We boxed out. I thought this was probably the best game we have had all year boxing out. We put a body on somebody. We went after the loose balls. We are going to have to do that on Tuesday night no matter who we play.”
On injury to Sheronne Vails ankle:
“Well she has two of them. When they get hit in the nose, then I feel bad for them. She was in there getting looked at and she seems fine. She will probably just get some ice and some treatment. I expect her to play on Tuesday night.”
On crowd for Tuesday:
“I sure do. I would be surprised if do not get another great turnout for our game on Tuesday night. We just have some fantastic fans that love women’s basketball. We are very fortunate for that.”
Shoni Schimmel
On the opening spurt:
“We just got out there and made our first couple shots. We fed off each other on the offensive end. We made shots in the beginning and continued to make shots after that. It just kept us going.”
On getting things going in her first tournament game:
“It was definitely big. Just for us to go out there and execute what coach wanted us to do and follow the game plan was just overall better for everybody. It was a great way to start it. Everybody else started doing so we finished it great too.”
Tia Gibbs
On if this was her best game so far this season:
“By far, yes.”
On the revenge factor of this game against Vanderbilt:
“As much as I want to say this is just another first round NCAA Tournament game, it meant a lot. Ever since I transferred this has been the game that I have been wanting to play. I was prepared and my teammates had my back. We were ready to make a statement.”
On what was said in the huddle in the second half:
“Coach told us we are starting the second half 0-0. We were just talking to each other like we are down ten right now and we need to get this lead back up. From then on we just knew we had to execute and play harder defense and get the loose balls and box out and rebound and we would be fine.”
Monique Reid
On Tia’s performance and a rebound that Tia ripped away from Monique:
“Well we talked and she said she had it and she ripped it and I was like okay. I mean she made it look that bad but it is okay. At least we are on the same team. We just fed off of her. She played an excellent game. On the last play of the game I had a wide open lay-up but I threw it to her because I knew she would make it. That three in the end, it was just like putting a fork in it. I knew Tia was hot so I gave her the ball. I am just really proud of her and I am glad she plays for us. I am losing my voice.”
On Vanderbilt’s frustration
“Yes somewhat. I mean you can see some of the plays like holding and fouls and stuff like that. We didn’t let it get to us and let their frustration frustrate us. We just continued to play hard and gave great effort.”
